Notoceratops bonarelli - Ornithischian Dinosaurs
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(noh-to-ce-rah-tops)
"southern horn faced"
Describer Tapia, 1918
Also Known As --
Type of Species
Order Ornithischia
SubOrder ?Marginocephalia
InfraOrder ?Ceratopsia
Micro-Order --
Family --
Size ?
Period Late Cretaceous Period, about 80 million years
ago
Fossilsite Argentina
Diet Herbivore
Notoceratops lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 80 million years ago. Its name means "southern horn faced". Very little is know about this dinosaur. Scientist are in debate about what kind of dinosaur it was. Since the naming of Notoceratops in 1918, the jaw bone that lead to its identification has been lost. This is a problem. Paleontologist can't say for sure that Notoceratops really was a horn dinosaur, and because the original bone is missing, it is now impossible to check the facts. Only when another Notoceratops fossil is found will its true appearance be known. Until then there is a big question mark hanging over its identification.
Discovery
When part of the fossilized jaw bone in Chubut province, Argentina. They
compared it with new species, with bones from elsewhere in the world,
and said that it belonged to a creature from the ceratopsian family of
dinosaurs. This dinosaurs were noted for their parrot like bills and horned,
frill heads. This dinosaur was named by a paleontologist Augustu Tapia,
its name Notoceratops, meaning "southern horn faced". He called
it southern because the dinosaur was from the continent of South America.
But there is speculation by paleontologists today that Notoceratops was
not a horn dinosaur.